The tablet is a low-environmental-impact recycled aluminum. Traditionally, utilizing scrap required two melting processes—once by the recycler and once by the rolling mill. However, Yamaichi Metal viewed the energy and cost involved in two rounds of melting as wasteful, which led to the development of the tablet. Producing pure aluminum is essential. Without high purity, many inclusions remain during rolling, leading to product defects and reduced yield. To improve recycling efficiency, we will continue to enhance the precision of foreign material removal.

The body and lid of an aluminum can are each made from different types of aluminum. Therefore, unless these two types are separated and recycled individually, achieving a 100% recycling rate is not possible. Tablets are already categorized into two types—one from the body and one from the lid—but we believe there is still technical potential for improvement. Looking ahead ten years, we plan to invest in research to enhance the precision of separation. If new aluminum cans can be produced using only empty cans, the sustainability of aluminum cans as containers will increase dramatically.

In the latter half of the 2020s, the introduction of carbon taxes is expected to begin in earnest, and companies are likely to bear an increasing burden. When calculating CO2 emissions from aluminum can production, emissions from all processes—including raw materials, rolling, and can manufacturing—are combined. By using tablets, CO2 emissions in the raw material sector can be reduced. However, we aim to further enhance sustainability. By 2030, our goal is to achieve zero CO2 emissions in Scope 1 and 2 at our factory. We will begin switching from heavy oil to LNG in the summer of 2025, and the supply of CO2-free electricity will be completed in 2026. Additionally, we are targeting zero waste emissions from our processes by 2030.